Ocean Experts Urge Priority Actions

A New White
Paper from UMass Institute

Traces the
Intensifying Web of Interconnections among

Climate
Change, Ocean Impacts, and International Security

by Felix
Dodds and Michael Strauss

The extreme and devastating weather impacts of climate change
have now become obvious to all but the most ideologically- (and financially-)
invested climate deniers.A parallel
series of reactions in the world’s ocean ecosystems are becoming visible, as
well.But the combined effects of the
shifts in those two vast geophysical systems on the equally complex dynamics
governing human, economic and national security are only beginning to become clear.

The Collaborative Institute for Oceans, Climate and
Security (CIOCS), based at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, has just
published a policy and governance White Paper analyzing the pervasive impacts
of global climate change on the world’s oceans, and the multiple potential ways that changing oceans and atmosphere can affect
human societies and disrupt nations.

The Paper describes the cascading impacts of climate and
ocean changes on international security systems, on coastal populations, on
human health, on ocean resources, and on the rapidly melting Arctic.It highlights a series of Priority Actions
that can – and must – be taken to avoid the most destructive of those possible
outcomes, defining more than three dozen specific actions.

The key political and economic actors who need to take
leadership responsibility for initiating those actions are then identified. It calls for advance planning and cooperation
among national and local governments, international agencies, the private
sector, educators, media, non-profit organizations (NGOs), and the U.S. Navy
and maritime forces.

In the last 15 years the U.S. has experienced 12 of the
hottest years on record, with heat waves, droughts, wildfires and floods all
now more frequent and more intense.

Over the last nine months, the American public has watched
ocean and climate change struggling to move up the political agenda. The crowded and contentious reality of that
agenda may make it tempting for many political leaders to – once again – defer
action on an issue that is so complex and so far-reaching into the future that it
can almost seem not to exist in the real worlds of the present.

But the all-too-real impacts of Superstorm Sandy painfully
illustrated the potential impact of the changing weather patterns that all
countries can come to expect on a regular basis.Those effects that involve oceans will be
felt by not only by coastal developing nations which rely on the seas as a
primary source of protein for hundreds of millions of people, but by virtually
all countries – coastal and inland, developed and developing – which depend on
the transportation, recreation, nutrition and energy industries supported by
the world’s oceans and their ecosystems.

The secondary and tertiary impacts on human security, and
thereby on international political security, are rapidly emerging as a multi-layered
issue that is still only partially understood.Initial previews of such impacts might be the images of –

·Thousands of Bangladeshi refugees attempting to
flee flooded coastal plains, only to face refusal of passage by Indian border
forces, fearing an overwhelming of their own country’s resources.

·Canada’s naval forces steaming to patrol newly
opened Arctic shipping lanes following a U.S. announcement that it would seek
to sail those as international waters.

·Food riots in Mexico City in 2007 following spiking
prices of corn meal brought on by a combination of regional droughts and
financial speculation half a world away.

U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, who was among the 225
participants at the UMass conference, said:

“Compared to a century ago, oceans are now warmer, higher,
stormier, saltier, lower in oxygen and more acidic. Any one of these would be cause for concern. Collectively, they cry out for action.”

The White Paperlists a series of recommendations for action in five priority areas: the climate-oceans-security nexus; coastal and population effects; climate, oceans, and human health; Arctic impacts; and ocean benefits.

Among its highlights, the Paper calls for:

The United States to urgently ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea UNCLOS and its two implementation agreements – the Part XI Deep-Sea Mining Agreement and the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement.

The Arctic Council member governments to significantly upgrade the political status of the Council by establishing the Ottawa Declaration as a treaty with legally binding obligations, by providing it a permanent independent secretariat, and by providing it an active role in ecosystem-based management (a strategy partially acted upon by the Council’s May 15, 2013 decision to add China and five other nations as associate members).

reviewing emerging and
new maritime activities such as deep-sea tourism, CO2 sequestration,
and floating installations

Scientists, businesses and local authorities to
cooperate to rapidly researchecologically
sustainable methods for building coastal resilience against storm surges

Governments to restructure
subsidies to the insurance industry for coverage of coastal properties
through the National Flood Insurance Policy, and require that those sited
on the coast pay full insurance rates.

In September 2010, then-Senator John Kerry effectively
framed the inter-sectoral connections and the political challenges these issue bring
–

“On … issues from global hunger to global health, changing
global temperatures and weather patterns will inject a new element of chaos
into the already-fragile existences of the world's poorest people. Among the predictions are more famine and
drought, expanding epidemics, more natural disasters, more resource scarcity
and significant human displacement. Ominously,
the poorest and least equipped to respond are likely to be among the hardest
hit. …

“The impacts of climate change threaten the stability of our
development strategies. It's time we

craft a path forward where our development and climate goals
are mutually reinforcing.”

As the White Paper narrates, it will be up to political
leaders like the newly-appointed Secretary of State Kerry – working in coherent
collaboration with local authorities, ocean agencies, educators, businesses,
and NGOs – to track the emerging challenges, create effective strategic
responses, and channel the
technological, economic and political resources to take clear and necessary
actions.

the moderator was Geoffrey Hamilton Chief of the PPP Programme at UNECE, asked a number of question. My comments were as follows:1. Do the 8 Guiding Principles on People-First PPPs reflect the new model that is needed for the UN Sustainable Development Goals?

One of my colleagues on the panel here did make a comment about regulation. I would remind everyone that the lack of regulation around the banks saw them privatize the profits and socialized the losses. We cant see the same with PPPs. I would comment on what Geoffrey said in his opening about someone from the EU commenting that too many rules might frighten away some in the private sector. Well I say so be it. If they d…

Who leads UNEP? The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is – at its core – an organization driven by member states, particularly with the setting up of United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) after Rio+20. However, stakeholders play an important role in the organization, providing guidance in the realms of policy and science. This is to assist member states in making good decisions and to work in partnership in delivering these decisions within the framework of the UNEP Programme of Work.
UNEP’s functions are inherently political, and member states define such core functions of UNEP has in the normative and political convening spaces in the programme of work. Any work with stakeholders, including the private sector, needs to be anchored in that programme of work. The hope of many member states and stakeholders is that their concerns about the recent direction of UNEP have been heard and are being acted upon by its leadership.

Felix Dodds is a Senior Fellow at the Global Research Institute and a Senior Affiliate at the Water Institute at University of North Carolina and an Associate Fellow at the Tellus Institute. He was for 20 years the Executive Director of Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future (1992-2012). He played a significant role in the Rio+20 Conference and has been active at the UN since 1990 attending key meetings on sustainable development.He is an International Ambassador for the City of Bonn.
In 2011 he chaired the UN DPI NGO 64th Conference on Sustainable Societies - Responsive Citizens, he also co-chaired the UN Commission on Sustainable Development NGO Steering Committee (1997-2001)
He has written or edited 14 books his latest is Negotiating the Sustainable Development Goals with Abassador Donoghue and Jimena Roesch which completes the Vienna Cafe Trilogy with the New Development Agenda and 'From Rio+20 to the New Development Agenda' written with Jorge Laguna and Liz Thompson and Only One Earth written with Maurice Strong and Michael Strauss. .His other books are: The Water, Food, Energy and Climate Nexus: Challenges and an Agenda for Action edited by Felix Dodds and Jamie Bartram (2016); Governance for Sustainable Development (2015) (edited); The Plain Language Guide to Rio+20 (2013); Into the 21st Century (Green Print 1988),
+ The Way Forward Beyond Agenda 21 (1997);
+ Earth Summit 2002 (2000);
+ Multi-stakeholder processes (2002);
+ How to Lobby at Intergovernmental Meetings (2004);
+ Human and Environmental Security (2005);
+ Negotiating and Implementing MEAs (2007);
+ Climate and Energy Insecurity (2009);
+ Biodiversity and Ecosystem Insecurity (2011);
+ Only One Earth (2012). Most recently he has written his forst comic with Michael Strauss Santa's Green Christmas: Father Christmas Battles Climate Change (2016); He writes occasionally for the BBC Green Room and Outreach, and Network 2012. He has written for BEST NME, Liberator, New Democrat, New Statesman, Habitat, IISD MEA Bulletin
He has been an advisor on the UK, Danish and European Union delegations for meetings on environment. ( the Danish were the most fun :-) )
From 2006 and 2008 at the San Sebastian Film Festival he conducted a ten day blog linking the festival themes to the politics of the day He is also twittering @felixdodds
He chaired the National League of Young Liberals and was a member of the Liberal Party Council and Policy Panel on Defence. He is at present President of Amber Valley Liberal Democrats. His Power to the People book is a coming of age book in a political world